On Bob Simon's Opinion on Jewish Communities in Yesha

Here you can view Bob Simon of CBS suggesting earlier this month something he thinks would be difficult to imagine: an American President dictating to Israel the evacuation of 'settlements' or withholding foreign aid.


This blogger summed it up thus:

He [Bob Simon] said, in his view, that peace between the two peoples was probably lost and gone forever as a result of the increasing number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, pushing Palestinians out of their homes and off their land. More and more Palestinian land in the West Bank, he stated, has been occupied by Israeli settlements that has caused the Palestinians to be marginalized in their own territory. In his words, unless something drastic happens within the Israeli government to change its policies, the Palestinian people will become the victims of apartheid in their own land.

He's been caught out previously on this issue here.

Here he explains why evacuation probably won't happen.

I can't wait to see the full "60 Minutes" program (it should be replayed in Israel next Saturday night) if only because Bob called me up last month and asked to meet with me. He had done a long interview with my wife and I, I think, about a decade ago or so. He and my wife discussed Great Neck, where they are both from.

But this time, he never renewed the contact and passed me over.

I wonder why. He did do Daniella Weiss, though:

Two former, prominent politicians, one an Israeli and the other a Palestinian, say a two-state solution to the troubles between their people is no longer possible - an attitude a growing number of the region's citizens are expressing.

60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon's report on the situation will be broadcast this Sunday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

The reason for their cynicism is thousands of intractable Israeli settlers who occupy the West Bank of the Jordan River - lands Israel took in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War that Palestinians want back to form the basis of their independent state.

It will never happen, says former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meron Benveniste. "Prospects [for two states] are nil. The geopolitical condition that's been created in ’67 is irreversible. Cannot be changed. You cannot unscramble that egg," says Benviniste. "[Settlers] will remain and flourish."

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, former candidate for Palestinian president, agrees. "While my heart still wants to believe that the two-state solution is possible, my brain keeps telling me the opposite because of what I see in terms of the building of settlements," he tells Simon. "So, these settlers are destroying the potential peace for both people that would have been created if we had a two-state solution," he says.

If there was any hope at all, it was dashed last month when Israel invaded Gaza to end Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli cities, says Barghouti...But Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni believes a two-state solution can still be achieved and that Israel will be able to get the settlers to leave the West Bank."So this is the responsibility of the government and police to stop [settlers]. As simple as that. Israel is a state of law and order," she says.

But even when the government of Israel tries to stop new, illegal settling in the West Bank by demolishing the dwellings, they are met with defiance and sometimes violence. They must deal with deeply religious settlers who believe they are on a mission from God to preserve the Jewish State, like Daniella Weiss, whose house was demolished. "And we will rebuild it. The experience shows that the world belongs to those who are stubborn, and we are very stubborn," she tells Simon.

Here's the full Charlie Rose interview: